He
was an old man, bent and trembling slightly. His hair pure white and
sparse and parted directly down the middle. On either side of his
head two large ears stuck out like handles with drooping lobes
quivering in the air. His face was wrinkled and spotted with age,
and his watery blue eyes glistened weakly in the bright light thrown
by the arc light overhead. Christ
he must be a hundred years old,
John thought. Ms. Walker led the old man towards the shack. He
didn't shuffle as John expected, but he lifted each foot , and
deliberately placed it ahead of the other.

“We didn't expect
to see you here, Mr. Smith,” Carl hurried ahead of the couple to
open the door to the guard shack.

“Mr. Smith
believed it was time for him to visit the property,” Ms. Walker
responded. “It has been far too long since he was last here.”

“Oh yes,” Carl
held the door open and stepped to the side to let them through.
“It's been quite a while.”

Inside the shack,
an area designed for 2 was woefully overcrowded with the 4 of them.
Carl managed to maneuver a chair into position for Mr. Smith to sit
in. The old man lowered himself slowly grasping Ms. Walker's arm with
one hand and his cane with the other as Carl held the swivel chair
steady. To John the whole exercise seemed to take a painfully long
time, though it could not have been longer than a few seconds. He
tried to stay out of the way of the others, it seemed they knew what
they were doing. Carl managed to bustle about in the cramped space,
shuffling papers into some semblance of neatness, tossing the boxes
that contained the remnants of their take-out dinner into the round
trash can beneath the counter. The whole time their employer sat
still, his veined hands now both resting, shaking, on the head of his
cane. Neither he nor Ms. Walker said a word. The only sound was
Carl muttering to himself as he tidied up.

After a few
moments, the old man spoke: “Mr. Nelson. I would like to speak
with Mr. Coe privately.” The voice was high pitched and just as
shaky as his hands.

Carl
stopped his busy work, but his hands still fidgeted as if they
continued to find papers to shuffle in mid air. “Sir, is there
anything I can do for you? John hasn't been here that long. I'm
sure I can answer any questions you have.”

“No, no, Mr.
Nelson,” Smith's eyes wandered about, taking a leisurely tour of
the room before landing on John. “I would just like to get to know
you Mr. Coe. We haven't met properly yet.”

“No, Sir,” John
said. “I am happy to finally make your acquaintance.”

Poor Carl
hesitated, a worried look on his face.

“Mr.
Smith wishes to speak to your colleague in private,” Ms. Walker
said. She rested a hand gently, but firmly on his arm. Carl had no
choice but to follow her direction as she led him out of the guard
shack. As he left, he shot John a look, as if he was trying to send
a message to him telepathically. John could only guess at what the
message might be, but he thought it was Don't
say anything about the door.

Once they were
alone, Mr. Smith motioned to the other chair in the room. “Please
have a seat Mr. Coe.” John settled himself in the chair, sitting
up straight, hands on his knees. “I have been very derelict in my
duty as an employer. What kind of man does not make himself known to
the people who work for him?”

“No worries, Sir.
I figured you were a man who liked his privacy.”

“Yes, yes. That I
am. But still, it's rude.” He shifted in his seat, and stroked the
head of his cane. “How are you getting on? Are you content in
your work?”

“Ah, sure. It's
pleasant enough.” John had never worked anywhere where his boss
asked how he liked his job. He was a little unsure of what the right
answer would be.

“And Mr. Nelson,
has he been helpful to you in learning your duties?”

“Oh yeah. Carl
got me squared away pretty quick.”

“Oh good, good.
It's always good to have a team that works well together.” He
paused. “Your background check shows you are unmarried. Do you
have any family. Anyone you're close too?”

“Oh yes.” Mr.
Smith said, his shaking voice pepping up a little. “The southwest.
I spent some time there when I was a young man. New Mexico
actually. It wasn't a state then, but beautiful nonetheless. Ms.
Walker thinks I should move south, better for the old bones, but I
love the winters, the cold. You don't hear that often from an old
man!” He cackled in a way that made John uneasy, but he chuckled
along with him.

“No Sir. You
don't hear it from the young very much either.” John mulled over
the information. Before New Mexico was a state? How long ago was
that?

“Everyone wants
to be warm, Mr. Coe. From the smallest infant to the old man on his
deathbed. They all search for it and they will find it, but in the
end the cold wins out. I like being on the side of the winner.”

John decided his
best response was to nod in agreement. It was a strange thing to
say. His own hands began to fidgit on his lap. They sat in silence
for a moment until Mr. Smith's quavering voice peeped up.

“How is the
building? All secure?”

“Yes Sir. Every
night the same thing. Nothing comes in or out, except me and the
other guards.”

“I had heard that
you have been having problems with animals?”

“Some coyotes dug
under the fence and were wandering around the yard, but we filled in
the hole and they haven't come back in yet. They have been hanging
around though. You can hear them howling and yipping.”

“Not good to have
animals about. Coyotes are dangerous creatures.”

“I know. Luckily
nobody has run into any of them in person. We just saw them on the
cameras.”

“Nothing else out
of the ordinary?” Mr. Smith's eyes were fixed on John's face.
They had lost their weak and watery appearance and were now shrewd
and sharp as ice.

John acted as if he
was trying to recollect anything. He shook his head. “No.
Nothing else. Everything else is the same every night.”

Mr. Smith sat up
straight in his chair. He still looked like a centenarian, but his
body language had changed from doddering old grandpa to that of a man
50 years younger who sensed he was not hearing what he wanted to. He
stared at John as if he could see the truth in him. John tried but
lost the staring contest. Mr. Smith continued to watch him after he
found something less threatening to look at.

“Mr. Coe,” he
started, “It is vital that nothing out of the ordinary occurs at
this warehouse. I have...valuables stored here, and I, an old man,
often have delusions that they may not always be secure.” He
sounded like a man far too serious for delusions of any sort. “You
have never seen anyone-anything-that might make it seem as though the
premises were not completely...safe?”

John steeled
himself and looked back to the old man. “Safe?” Mr. Smith
continued to watch him. “Mr. Smith, I don't know what you think
might happen, but I never see a change from day to day. I make the
rounds every hour and the gate is always locked, the fence is always
intact, except for the incident with the coyotes. The warehouse is
sealed tighter than...I don't know what, but it's locked up.
Always.”

Mr. Smith did not
believe him. It was obvious in his posture, the hardening look of
his eyes the clenching of his jaw. John waited for him to call out
his lie, but he only sat silently evaluating him.

“Mr.
Coe,” his voice was no longer high and quavering, it was low and
solid. “This warehouse holds things that are best left undisturbed.
If you ever notice anything-anything-
that would compromise the security of this building you must notify
me at once. Failure to do so will result in disastrous consequences
for you.” He leaned forward. “The blackness is not empty.”

“I-I don't know
what you're talking about.” He knew exactly what the old man
meant.

They sat in silence
for an impossible amount of time. Mr Smith stared at John, John
stared at a spot just above the old man's left shoulder. John
couldn't bring himself to look directly into those sharp blue eyes.
He felt if he did he would drop his gaze and that would be even more
damning than not meeting the gaze. Finally Mr. Smith called for his
assistant. “Ms. Walker!” His voice was high and quavery again.

Ms. Walker entered
the guard shack and helped him to his feet. John didn't move to
assist her, but followed them out the door and watched her gently
ease him into the back seat of the black sedan.

“It was a
pleasure speaking with you, Mr. Coe” Mr. Smith said.

“Likewise,”John
replied. Ms. Walker closed the door, slid in behind the wheel and
drove off without a word.

Welcome back to Achievements/Goals. I missed several postings, because my laptop crapped out on me. I had been making it work for almost a year after my 90 pound dog jumped on it, breaking a hinge, and cracking the bevel around the screen; but every time I moved the stupid thing the the lid moved a little, eventually causing chunks of plastic to break off and about a third of the screen to go black. When faced with the decision of whether to repair it or replace it, I went the repair route which took three weeks.

Hey, did you know that Toshiba no longer makes computers? Well, I didn't until I went to get mine fixed. Apparently, replacement parts have to be hand delivered from Japan, because that's how long it felt like I was sans laptop.

Hey, do you know how much it costs to replace basically the entire lid of a Toshiba laptop? Neither did I until I had to choke back the tears as I handed my credit card to the Geek Squad guy.

Good Evening. I missed some time, yes. I got busy with life, but I hope to be back on track. Without further ado, here's what has happened over the past couple of weeks:

Achievements I've been slowly working my way through Camp NaNoWriMo this month. I fell of the wagon pretty hard after four days, but with my low word count goal, it has been fairly easy to make up the lost time. I think I'll be able to finish within goal.I did a reading at my writing group two weeks ago. I got positive comments all around, which surprised me, because I was pretty sure that the best thing I could bring to the table was mediocre. I'm still not ready to accept positive feedback. That's the weirdest thing with me. I will absolutely accept criticism without fail, but give me a compliment, and I'm sure you're "just being nice."GoalsPretty much the same as they have been. I'm trying to just get myself on a baseline of competence before trying anything new.Continue to …